Celebrating Cultures, Strengthening Communities 

Recently I had the opportunity to donate my time to photograph the 13th Annual Changing Worlds' Gala. As a Chicago wedding photographer and artist, I enjoy working with organizations within our great city that enhance learning but more specifically, artistic learning. Changing Worlds is a nonprofit organization within Chicago that offers art education through a unique program. The program specifically integrates cultural and social histories, encouraging individuals to explore their own backgrounds, educating through academics and art-learning skills. 

It was a gorgeous evening in Chicago on the night of Thursday, May 14th. Traffic was tight as usual and the clouds were heavy but no rain fell until a little later on. I arrived early at Germania Place to set up my gear, to take some shots of the large rooms and the abundant silent auction gifts. Around 5pm, the guests started arriving to cocktail hour and browsing through the many silent auction items. The Exceptions started playing smooth tunes throughout the cocktails, which continued all the way through the dinner hour. Guests mingled while enjoying the music, snacking on wonderful hors d'oeuvres, sipping great cocktails, all with good friends.

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Dinner started promptly at 6:45p. Our emcee for the evening, Diane Pathieu of ABC 7 Chicago, came on to outline the evenings' agenda. Throughout dinner there were breaks in the music for the introduction from the event co-chairs (Lindsay Alvis Cochrane and Beanca Nicholson), student leadership awards and student presentations in both dance(students of Pilsen Academy) and spoken word (students of DePreist Elementary). Changing Worlds' Executive Director Mark Rodriguez took a few moments to thank the guests for their support and attendance at the evenings' gala event and also spoke about the need for this great organization within the City of Chicago. This organization annually affects more than 14,000 students, teachers and families within the Chicagoland area. Directly following Mark Rodriguez was Vicki Woolner Samuels, the President of the Changing Worlds' Board of Directors. She gave a personal challenge to every guest in the room, requesting monetary donations, bids on the centerpieces and continued bids from the silent auction items which were continuing throughout the end of dinner. She also reiterated the need to funding and the assistance that programs like Changing Worlds offers not only to Chicago but to society as a whole. 

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The evening presentation was done by Mario Rossero of Chicago Public School (CPS). Mario is currently the Chief of Core Curriculum at CPS. He led the movement to create within the CPS school system a first ever district-wide Arts Education Plan. He spoke at great length about his accomplishments and struggles developing a stronger art education program throughout CPS. He also offered a challenge to the guests in the room, requesting that they change their language about art and school art programs. One problem that he shed light on is that by our speech, we can create environments that do not foster change. When we cast a negative light on issues, by our tone and language, and that can in turn create more negativity. In closing, Mario requested that each guest resolves to"change the arts convo" in an effort for greater change. 

Changing Worlds then presented the 2015 Connecting Cultures Awards. The two honorees were Sharon Hidalgo and Mario Rossero. Sharon Hidalgo is an accomplished business woman at Xerox in Chicago. In January of 2015, Hidalgo achieved a global leadership role supporting Xerox's High Tech, Telecommunications and Media Vertical Industry. In 2012, she was presented with the Most Powerful & Influential Women of Illinois Award by the National Diversity Council. She has also served and continues to serve on the Changing Worlds Executive Board for the past 10 years. Mario Rossero leads the Chicago Public Schools to enhancing student learning in Literacy, Mathematics, Science, Social Sciences, the Arts and Global Citizenship. Rossero has transformed CPS and executed his vision after setting his goal of pushing an Art Education Plan in 2012. The evening concluded with heartfelt appreciation for all donors and donations, with one final push for a language change in the arts. Overall the evening was an outstanding success and all were pleased with the evening's outcome.

Again, I am so excited that I had the opportunity to work with such a great local organization and I truly hope that I can work with them again next year for their annual gala. Remember to stay positive in your speech and to "change the arts convo" with Mario Rossero and Changing Worlds.